Parkside Snack Bar

Every time I hit the beach, I come here for a bite to eat. The food is of course overpriced. They have a captive audience. On a taste and quality level, the food is pretty tasty for snack bar food.
My favorites are the soft serve cones and hamburgers. Burgers are charbroiled. They’re served with fresh slices of tomato and shredded iceberg lettuce. For the Eco conscious, you will be glad to know that they give out compostable forks, spoons.
But I have to say, the last time I came here was on a late Saturday afternoon. There was only 1 fella working. He was the cashier and the cook. He handled the money, and grabbed the sugar cone for the soft serve with his bare hands. Yikes! Needless to say, hubs didn’t eat the cone. He only ate the ice cream because of that.

While in Stinson Beach, we wanted to find lunch here as we combed the beach. Came across Parkside snack bar, and our group ended up having their veggie burger (looked homemade, not one of those store bought processed ones), a cheeseburger, grilled tuna sandwich, and an order of their fish & chips. Everything was very good, and we had a very nice lunch. Only negative was that it was a cool & windy day, and they offered nothing in way of protection from weather, nor any heaters. If the weather had been nicer, would have been a perfect lunch. Next time, if it’s cool & windy, we’ll keep looking for better options that offer more protection and/​or heaters. Still, good food at this place.

3.5 stars.
The Lunch Box was closed so we came here for sandwiches. The roasted turkey sandwich with Dijon aioli was delicious and I love that the bread is toasted. French fries are good but I asked for them extra crispy and they weren’t. Perfectly fine beach food.

A Day at the Beach…
The sun.
Suits. The bathing kind.
Flip flops.
Sunscreen.
Tanning lotion.
Bottled water.
Lip balm.
Shades.
Sand.
Oversized towels.
Umbrellas.
Light reading. VERY light.
Dogs.
A convertible if you’re lucky.
What’s missing?
A hot dog. Maybe w chili.
A burger. Preferably charbroiled.
Fries. French. Maybe w cheese. And chili.
And the piece de resistance?
A soft serve ice cream cone of course!
This is the perfect place for those last 4 items.
The first 14 items… you’re on your own.
Even if you grabbed breakfast at the Parkside Café next door earlier, & you’re going to have dinner at the Sand Dollar later, you should grab at least a soft serve from the Parkside Snack Bar in between.
After all, no Day at the Beach is complete without one.
Watch out for all the kiddos & pooches.
And your dripping soft serve on your toes & your chin.
Another great Stinson staple.
4 stars.

The little one-​man space lodged between the Snack Bar & Café caught my eye, how can I resist Brown Sugar Banana ice cream???
I ended up getting a medium cup w/​Brown Sugar Banana & Mint Chocolate Chip. Their ice cream is organic and comes from Straus Family Creamery. While the ice cream flavors were good, the chocolate chips were cold, hard, crunchy things that simply got in the way of the smooth ice cream.
Watch out if you’ve got limited cash on hand, because the updated prices were written on the glass above the ice cream rather than on the large menu posted up top.

Came to the snack bar after watching people coming onto the beach with yummy looking soft serve cones. So we followed the trail to the Parkside Snack Bar. Waiting in line was an experience. Everybody working behind the counter was grumpy or worse. There was a lot of scowling and impatience.
When I ordered, the guy didn’t hear me, so I repeated myself, and trying to be friendly I said something like «noisy back there, huh?» To which he grunted. I then ordered and paid. My daughter then decided to get a smoothie and he said «$ 7.05». I remarked that the board said $ 6. He and another guy said that the boss raised the prices but they hadn’t changed the board. I paid but was feeling annoyed and fleeced. If you change your price, change it! Even if you write over it with a sharpie; otherwise it’s false advertising.
Not recommended even though my cone was tasty enough and the smoothie was good.

Sunday funday at Stinson Beach, had the chili cheese fries, and chocolate swirl icecream, just as good as i remember as a kid! Geat memories and a great !

They have a really small list of ice cream options but I was really content with my mint chocolate chip ice cream on a waffle cone. The ice cream was really creamy and quite refreshing after a long hike.
It was nice because the line was relatively short compared to the snack bar and the server was pretty nice too.

Parkside is amazing! The food is absolutely delicious! I highly recommend the soft serve and french fries. The service was great as well. An employee named Griffin was very nice and friendly, and was very good at making the food! The food is reasonably priced, and the staff is very nice! My friend liked it so much she went up and told them how great they were doing! I really recommend this snack bar as a fun and easy place to grab some food while at the beach:)

You may have to be a local or privy to countless find childhood memories to really love this place, but I find that a trip to Stinson isn’t complete without walking barefoot across the hot parking lot, grabbing a towering soft serve and fries, and bringing them back to eat in the sand.
Especially satisfying after hiking dipsea or steep ravine. I also happen to love the hot dogs. But really it’s your typical beach snack bar, they have other menu items but I wouldn’t stray from hot dog/​burger/​fries/​shake/​ice cream. Twice fried fries are golden and delicious — especially when you dip them in the soft serve.

Pretty much Dairy Queen with the stuck up Marin county look. Can’t beat fries and ice cream! Great place to grab snacks after a day at the beach

My friends and I stopped here after hiking at Mt. Tam State Park and on our way to Stinson Beach to get some snacks. Hiking is hard work and deserves some ice cream. This snack bar is attached to the Parkside Café. The snack bar offers burgers, fries, nachos, sandwiches, smoothies, milkshakes, and ice cream! You order outside of the snack bar at the counter. We ordered vanilla soft serve ice creams on a cone, a strawberry milkshake, and the chili cheese nachos. We waited maybe five minutes for our orders to come out, which come out around the corner from where you order.
Our ice cream cones were swirled and it was so pretty! Tasted just great. The milkshake was all right. The chili cheese nachos were good but the chips were kind of stale. We took our snacks and walked over to the beach, which is about a five minute walk from the Snack Bar, and ate there.
Conveniently located by Stinson Beach and they offer a bunch of things. Nothing amazing, but hits the spot after some light hiking.

We decided to end our trip to San Fran with a day in the woods then on the beach and we ended up in the perfectly wonderful area of Stinson Beach. A great little beach town.
This is where the story turns ugly about 6 hours after eating here. My toddler got food poisoning from the food at this café and the owner’s back and forth with me via email was insulting and prying for too much detail. I just wanted to let them know that this happened and that they should be conscious of food handling and service. I get it they don’t want to take responsibility but timing and food wise it was 100% received at the Parkside Snack Bar. I live on the other side of the country I’m not looking for comps and will be sure to never return to this «restaurant» again If I were to return to Stinson Beach in the future.

Nice snack bar that also has ice cream. Has most items you would expect from a snack bar and then some, all at a reasonable price. Food is good.
Step up to counter order and pay (cards accepted for orders over $ 10), walk around the corner to wait ~10 minutes for pickup. There is a bench and couple of tables to sit at, or do what most folks do and eat at the park across the road.
If you need a toilet use the public toilets.

Convenient location but that may be the only thing going for it.
I mean after a long day at the beach or a 5 mile hike, who wouldn’t appreciate refueling with a hot meal and some soft serve ice cream? The pros were the relatively quickly moving line and the location, the food was nothing special. Smoothies were $ 6 and root beer floats were $ 4.75. $ 10 minimum for credit cards. There are 2 small tables nearby so we just took everything and ate on the beach. No restrooms but the ones near the beach are close enough. *shrugs* Nothing special in my book.

Cool spot for a Snack Bar. Small outdoor seating outside with only two tables. Behind it, we saw lots of people hanging out and BBQin’ on the grass. We were also told that the beach was a short walk away from there. In front of the Snack Bar it faces a cute little park, basketball court, and more grass to let your kids run around in.
Anyhow, I ordered the Grilled Chicken Sandwich and a side of fries. The chicken was just freshly made, stacked with lettuce, tomato, and mayo, every bite was perfect. They even had Tobasco outside! I mixed it with some ketchup which went perfect with my fries. My husband had the Fish & Chips. It was generous in side and pretty tasty, especially with the tartar sauce. Seeing that a lot of Unilocalers mentioned trying the Soft Serve, It was pretty hard to resist. We gave in and It was worth it! It was really yummy!
Tip: No public restroom and Minimum CC Transaction $ 10 or $ 1 fee

I go here on average once every 1.5 months. We eat in the park beside the Snack Shack. I bring a bottle of prosecco, charcuterie, some fruit, and we go over and get grill cheese sandwiches from Parkside to complete the meal with something warm.
The grill cheese is always good. Never over cooked and made with a homemade grain type bread. I’ve never tried anything but the grill cheese, actually that’s not true — once I got a «49’s style hot dog» which was disappointing, but that was ages ago and well… it was a hot dog. What was I expecting?
The downside to this place is their refusal to take credit or debit. They own the whole strip of businesses and their fancier restaurant takes all cards, the Snack Bar… not so much.
What’s worse is the only ATM is their pirate ATM that charges a $ 5 service fee. –1 Star.

This little shack was one of the funnest finds we found on Stinson Beach! Fast service and decent food, nothing gourmet or fantastic about it but considering that it’s marketing as a fast food place near a beach– we couldn’t be happier. The prices were decent, the food was much better than any other fast food places we’ve been near a beach. The fish and chips were surprisingly quite good, and I love their shoestring fries! The downside was that we went back two days in a row and they were out of clam chowder, pretty much a sin not to have if you’re a food place near a beach!
This place was super convenient and my boyfriend and I were very pleased to have a place we could just stop by and grab a bite!

Been here hundreds of times and it used to be better. Back in the day we would order the burger, fries and choco shake — we called it «The Menu»
These days the condiments are weak and fresh onions, lettuce tomato are lacking.
Will return in the name of nostalgia.

Food — 3.5
Service — 3.5
Atmosphere — 4
Overall — 4
Most people would think that one of these fast food joints just next to the beach (1 minute walk) would be a tourist trap selling mediocre foods at a non-​mediocre price. I’m one of those people, but I was very pleasantly surprised!
This is your typical burger, hot dog, fries and shake kind of joint. Not only are the prices reasonable (and cheap for a tourist standard), but the food is quite good. 6 bucks for a burger, 4 for chili cheese fries. 5 – 6 for sandwiches. 2 – 4 for ice cream and shakes. Definitely not outside of a typical spending range. We were particularly happy with the outcome after a long day at the beach. It was hot.
You can also tell by the egregious size of the line that this place is high in demand.
The food was regular food, and got a 3.5 because of my hunger. The service was regular as you can’t expect much from people inside of a shack. However, despite the long line, the food flowed fast and for that they get the extra .5 I enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere, family and friends laughing and enjoying a yummy meal. Not to mention it’s so close to the beach!
Most people who come here get their soft serve! At around 2 – 3 bucks a pop, you get this giant tower of soft serve and it’s definitely worth the money and wait with the hot weather!
Would come again!